The Future Oceans Lab was invited to a school to talk about its research on climate change and fisheries

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The Spanish “11 de Febrero” initiative has been created to commemorate the “International Day of Women and Girls in Science” in order to encourage girls to follow a scientific career. With this initiative in mind, the CIM-UVigo research group Future Oceans Lab (FOL) was invited by CEIP Santa María do Castro to talk about its current research on fisheries adaptation to climate change. FOL is really pleased to participate in this event to inspire girls since our research group is led by Elena Ojea, the first Galician women in getting an ERC-Starting grant.

This occasion was a great opportunity to disseminate scientific knowledge about climate change adaptation to an eager, motivated and spontaneous audience – children from 3 to 12 years with a high environmental interest. After a brief presentation to introduce the concepts of climate change,  its impacts and some examples of adaptation as well as talking about the evidence on the spatial shifts of marine species, children learned about the redistribution of fish in the ocean playing a game designed by the researchers. During the activity they had to think how fish and fishers would behave considering climate change impacts by moving different pieces of fish and ships on a big world map. Moreover, they discuss about the socioeconomic impacts of such changes.

The very nice acceptance, participation and awesome audience of the the CEIP Santa María do Castro, who is really concerned about environment, encourage FOL members to continue with this kind of activities to encourage children to be scientist.